Evernote's Phil Libin says advertising sucks and apps are dead

Big Data is a Big Thing for most companies these days. And it should be even bigger as we all start wearing Internet-connected devices and communicating with our doctors and refrigerators. Maybe your doctor could tell you to renew your blood pressure medication, or your local Safeway will tell you that it's time to go buy more ice cream, and by the way, here's a great deal.

But Evernote CEO Phil Libin wants nothing to do with commercializing Big Data, either through ads or selling data to others.

“Our fundamental business model is not to make money off your data,” Libin said at the MIT Technology Review Summit in San Francisco today. Evernote has “an old-fashioned business model,” he said. “We only make money from you when you decide to pay for it. We reject all of the Big Data affiliate advertising models.”

Sure, wearable devices may provide a lot of information that could be used to help find cures for diseases or make our lives run more easily, he conceded. But he does not want Evernote to be one of the companies that provides that data. He said he does not believe most people want to be spied on by their clothing or eyeglasses in order to get a great deal on their next purchase.

“I don't think most people would pay for that,” he said. "The idea that people want high-quality ads, I call bullsh-- on that.”

He pointed out that he signed up for Pandora because he's too lazy to decide what kind of music he likes, but when Pandora started including ads and offered to take them away if he paid a subscription fee, he paid.

“What kind of a f----ed up message is that?” he asked. Sales people are out trying to convince advertisers that they should pay for the right to reach Pandora's listeners, he notes. “Then they tell the customer, 'If you pay us, we'll get rid of this sh--.'”

So is selling apps the only alternative? No. “Apps are becoming irrelevant,” he said. He thinks people simply don't have the time to think about what apps to use and choose them from hundreds of competitors. The real business model of the future is “hyper-awareness.”

He envisions a time in the very near future when Evernote will be always on in the background, “examining what you're doing, what you're thinking about and who you're meeting with ... and figuring out what piece of information exists in the world that could help you best accomplish whatever you want to accomplish, then offering that information.”

All of that will be done with your permission, of course.

Instead of thinking that they need to open the Evernote app now, he said customers should be thinking, “I'm sure glad I signed up for this Evernote service.”

That, he notes, requires a lot of trust from customers. That means your data stays with you. And perhaps Evernote's decision engines.